Murmurs

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The woman who Neil Goldschmidt sexually abused starting when she was a 14-year-old girl and Goldschmidt was 35 died in a Portland hospice Jan. 16 after a long battle with a chronic illness. She was 49. The woman was Goldschmidt’s baby sitter and neighbor, and the daughter of a woman who worked for Goldschmidt when he was Portland mayor from 1973 to 1979. In 2004, WW published a story (“The 30-year Secret,” May 12) detailing the abuse that occurred over a three-year period and Goldschmidt’s efforts to cover it up. That effort included a $350,000 payment in exchange for the woman’s silence—the last $50,000 of that deal is due in 2015. Goldschmidt went on to become secretary of transportation in the Carter administration, Oregon’s governor from 1987 to 1991 and the state’s consummate deal-maker. The story detailed how his victim’s life spun out of control post-Goldschmidt, including substance abuse and a term in federal prison. A later story (see “Who Knew,” WW, Dec. 15, 2004) named others complicit in the decades-long cover-up. Goldschmidt’s victim was divorced and had no children. She is survived by her parents, who live in Portland.

State Rep. Mike Schaufler (D-Happy Valley) has joined Rep. Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland) on cyclists’ hot seat. After BikePortland.org reported last week on Greenlick’s House Bill 2228—which would ban carrying children younger than 6 on a bike or in a bike trailer—Greenlick backed away from his proposal amid biker pushback. Schaufler isn’t doing the same yet with his bill, HB 2602, which would prohibit cyclists from wearing headphones. Schaufler tells WW his legislation is a common-sense measure designed to protect cyclists, and he voiced frustration with the opposition from riders. “People on bicycles ask for a whole lot,” Schaufler said, “and then they say, ‘Don’t regulate us!’”

The South Portland Neighborhood Association’s appeal of a city decision to approve a new federal Homeland Security center heads to the City Council Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 19. The association appeal contends the center slated for its neighborhood is a high-security detention center but that the city has sought to “obscure and camouflage” the proposal’s true nature. The city says the plan, to construct a new three-story building connected to an existing four-story building at 4310 SW Macadam Ave., conforms to current zoning codes. The building currently houses storage vaults for rent.

Portland City Council plans to decide next month whether the city should rejoin the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. Most of the speakers at a Jan. 13 council hearing opposed rejoining the JTTF, fearing both the potential loss of civil liberties and harassment from police. Hala Gores, a Palestinian-American attorney and co-chair of the Arab and Muslim Police Advisory Council, was worried that a council vote on Feb. 24 to rejoin the JTTF would disturb the trust between Portlanders and local police. “We don’t want that tainted,” she said. Read more at wweek.com/taskforce.

A Portlander who survived the 1970s Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia (see “A Survivor’s Story,” WW, Feb. 25, 2009) is returning to his native land this week to begin building a school in a rural village. Kilong Ung, a software engineer who lives in New Columbia Villa, has helped raise more than $65,000 for Cambodia since founding the Golden Leaf Education Foundation in Portland in 2009. Ung and a delegation including Hem Heng, the Cambodian ambassador to the United States, are set Jan. 25 to visit the village of Ang, where Ung hopes to sign a building contract for the new school. “My dream is not just one or two schools,” Ung says. “I want to build hundreds or thousands.”